[HN Gopher] Jupiter's energy crisis solved: Auroras roast upper ... ___________________________________________________________________ Jupiter's energy crisis solved: Auroras roast upper atmosphere Author : wglb Score : 40 points Date : 2021-09-13 16:49 UTC (2 days ago) (HTM) web link (earthsky.org) (TXT) w3m dump (earthsky.org) | Jun8 wrote: | " Based solely on Jupiter's distance from the sun, its upper | atmosphere should be about -100 F (-73 C). But observations show | Jupiter's upper atmosphere instead soars to temperatures of 800 F | (426 C)." | | Many have thought about life in the upper parts of Jupiter's | atmosphere (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_in_fiction). | There's some water, it's hot, and the super lightning bolts add | extra energy. The main problem it seems for small microorganisms | is staying at the hospitable height: | https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/jupiter/atmosphere?show=hs_... | | If there's some sort of pocket/eddy that keeps a portion of the | atmosphere at constant height continuously that might be a | suitable place for early life. | criticaltinker wrote: | There's a wide body of scientific evidence supporting the fact | that electromagnetic forces have a significant impact at many | scales throughout the solar system and cosmos. It has been | observed, since at least the early 70s, that the Sun's electric | field induces auroras, radiation belts [0], and convection in | planetary magnetospheres [1][2]. The OP title might be a little | sensational by calling this an energy crisis - but the photos of | the heat bands were really interesting IMO. | | I admire movements like the Electric Universe Theory [3] for | spreading awareness of plasma cosmology, magnetohydrodynamics, | etc. I think in the future there will be an ecosystem around | solar space weather, [4] is an example of such. | | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belt | | [1] | https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/RG00... | | [2] | https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19700002717/downloads/19... | | [3] https://www.electricuniverse.info/peer-reviewed-papers/ | | [4] https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-09-15 23:00 UTC)